Aslanoğlu1

Gülcan Irmak Aslanoğlu

Introduction to American Literary and Cultural History

Group: E

Essay #3: Premodernism

The Open Window in “The Story of an Hour”

Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” deals with many important themes that are still
valid today; such as the importance of being independent, unhealthy relationships, marital
oppression and even the concept of love and marriage. She manages to write about all these
never-ending problems and express the position of a woman in an unhealthy relationship in
just two and a half pages with the help of one unlucky character, a misunderstanding and an
open window.

The shock and grief of Mrs. Louise Mallard only lasts until she realizes what the death
of her husband really means. She leaves the room and heads to her own room alone after the
“the storm of grief had spent itself.” In her room, through the open door, the storm that
overtook her before is replaced “with the new spring life.” Instead of the storm of grief, there
is the “breath of rain” in the air. The rebirth of life in nature spreads from the sky and reaches
to Mrs. Mallard through the open window. She is dominated by the joy of freedom and feels
renewed, while looking at the new life blossoming outside her window. Through the window,
she has the glimpse of the life with independence and happiness. Her winter with her husband
that was full of times he couldn’t bring herself to love him and had to live with the “powerful
will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a
right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature” is over now as the spring of her life
begins. Or at least, she thinks it does.

When she sees her husband walking through the door, and feeling that all the joy and
freedom that was shown to her through her window was going to stay as nothing but a
glimpse of how her life could turn out to be, it is her life that ends, and not his. It is true that
her life couldn’t turn into a spring from winter, but we can assume that Mr. Mallard’s life will
change once he goes to his room to take a dive in his thoughts to find out how he is going to
live through the open window that welcomes anyone to take a peak outside of their own lives
to the opportunities that are missed, as well as the new ones to be gained.